​I ran across such a cute idea a few days ago. I saw it on You Tube, when I was looking for another sewing video. It is such an easy and cute idea, it is just perfect for so many Halloweeny functions where you want to be a bit in the spirit of the season without showing up in a full costume.

After doing a bit more digging, I found a couple other projects that are also easy and fun, so I decided to include them.​

Christmas with my family is always fun. I have two sisters, that each have two kids. They are all grown with kids of their own that are at least teenagers, so we have no small kids with mountains of gifts to open any more. The adults stopped exchanging gifts years ago, so this year we decided to do a White Elephant Gift Exchange to liven things up. We agreed to do this at Thanksgiving.These types of gift exchanges are quite popular at offices and other small groups, around the holidays. If you have never participated in a White Elephant Gift Exchange, these are the rules:

This is an easy little denim tree to make. The base is a five inch piece of a 2 x 6, with a hole drilled in the middle and a 12 inch dowl inserted. Then you cut strips of denim in gradually shorter and shorter pieces, and tie them around the dowl to the top.I made the bow and hot glued two clipped seams to the back of it and wired it to the top.

If you have never made bread dough ornaments for your Christmas tree, then you should give it a try! It is a fun activity for the whole family. They are easy to make and fun to decorate. To make the dough all you need are three ingredients:

I was looking around on the website Hometalk looking at all the really cool crafts and home decor ideas. I do this a couple times a week, I would do it more but I can't afford the time. I could spend hours on that site, love their innovative posts! But, I digress. During my travels on Hometalk, I saw one of the cutest, and simplest ideas that I have seen in years. I just lit up! I immediately emailed Lisa, of The Pennington Point website and asked her if I could feature her idea here on Homemade by Jade. I just had to share it with you all, it is adorable!

I've always loved egg nog. When I was a kid, we never had it very much, my parents always said it was too expensive. I am not sure why my mother never made it from scratch. I remember Mom coming home from the grocery store around Christmas time and taking that festive carton out of the bag. We would beg to have some, but we always had to wait until after dinner, when we would enjoy it together as a family.

These candle holders are so easy to make and can be dressed up for the holidays or dressed down. They are beautiful in almost any decor. If you want to make yourself a set of these, the tutorial is here:Oleander and Palm:Birch Wood Candle HoldersI love simple Christmas decorations. The clean lines without all the schmaltz seems to reduce my stress and help me feel more peaceful.....something we all need at this time of year.

Along with the fun of decorating for the holidays, there was always a bit of dread for having the tackle the unruly, messy and downright ugly corner of the storage room where they "Christmas stuff" resides. A sad disaster of mismatched boxes, dusty broken plastic totes and water damaged cardboard boxes.

Below is a picture of a diorama. A diorama is a three dimensional scene, in miniature, sometimes with a painted background. It can be any scene you want, a natural landscape, a city street, a store, a farm, etc.

Image Credit: Diorama by Diorama man. http://www.stormthecastle.com/diorama/cemetary-diorama/cemetary-halloween-diorama.htm Used with permission.